Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Any time I asked the Minister to give me a timeline, his simple answer was that it was not about timing and that the matter was far too important for that. He said it was more important to get it right because the contract was going to exist for 25 years. When I bring forward an idea about trying to get it right, however, time becomes a problem again. Time is only an issue when something comes from this side of the House. When the issues are on the Minister's side, it is not a problem. There has been a 19-month delay so far. When he was pressed on the radio this morning by Brian Dobson, the Minister indicated that September was when he, perhaps, expected a contract to be signed. By then, it will be a 27-month delay. The Minister has made no announcement on any delay. While I had my differences with the Minister's predecessor, Alex White, he flagged a six-month delay prior to leaving office. Since the Minister took over, there has been a 13-month delay, but the Minister has never once come to the House. I have given him ample opportunity to explain that there was a delay, but the Minister resisted. He has no choice now because of what has happened with Eir, which is not necessarily his fault.

All I want the Minister to do is to take stock of where we are at. We cannot continue with delay after delay and, as companies the size of the ESB, Vodafone and Eir pull out, fail to ask legitimate questions such as whether there is something inherently wrong with the tendering process. Someone reminded me today of another project which came through the process the Minister has a new name for. It is not a tender, it is another type of procurement. I think it is the one that was used to get us the famous Eircode postcodes. We know where that is going, or not. For months, the Minister came to the House to tell me it was really good because it would get ambulances to the right locations. I understand the ambulance service is now going to use something else or so I have been informed.

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